Pattern scanning techniques are used for a variety of applications and services. For instance, pattern scanning, or pattern matching is utilized in telecommunication networks for various tasks such as packet classification and packet routing, traffic shaping, load balancing, monitoring of traffic volumes and traffic types for billing, network upgrade planning, and other purposes, network anomaly detection, malware detection, denial of service detection, intrusion detection, and so forth. Pattern matching algorithms are also utilized in other tasks such as image matching, facial, voice, or other biometric recognition functions, and so forth.